The Movie Book

222

AND WE’LL BUY

OURSELVES A LITTLE

PIECE OF HEAVEN

ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL / 1974

R

ainer Werner Fassbinder’s

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

(Angst essen Seele auf)

is an intense study of an unlikely

but tender relationship between

an aging German cleaning woman

and a younger Arab immigrant

worker.It is also a trenchant

commentary on the state of 1970s

Germany, as the couple face the

derision and criticism of their

family and friends. By focusing on

the relationship between a white

German woman and an immigrant,

and placing it in the tough urban

heart of Munich, Fassbinder

achieved the emotional

engagement of classic melodrama

while exposing the underlying

tensions in German culture.

New German Cinema directors

such as Fassbinder sought to create

something peculiarly German by

bringing together the sharp

modernity and realism of the French

and British new waves with the

IN CONTEXT

GENRE

New German Cinema

DIRECTOR

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

WRITER

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

STARS

Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben

Salem, Barbara Valentin,

Irm Hermann

BEFORE

1955 Douglas Sirk’s romantic

melodrama All That Heaven

Allows provides inspiration

for Fassbinder’s Ali.

1972 Fassbinder makes

his mark as a provocative

filmmaker with The Bitter

Tears of Petra von Kant.

AFTER

1979 The Marriage of Maria

Braun is Fassbinder’s biggest

mainstream success.

1980 Fassbinder’s TV mini-

series Berlin Alexanderplatz

becomes a cult classic.

Fassbinder (left) plays Eugen,

son-in-law of German cleaning woman

Emmi (center). He and his wife Krista

(Irm Hermann) laugh at Emmi when she

says she has fallen in love with a

younger Moroccan man.